Controlled drawing to produce desirable hardness and microstructural gradients in alloy 302 wire

Abstract

The production of a macroscopically duplex microstructure in stainless steel alloy 302 wire, fine grains on the wire surface and coarse grains at the wire interior, was investigated by systematically varying the drawing angle from 8 to 32 deg and the reduction from 1 to 15 pct. The measured hardness gradient was correlated to the microstructure after heat treating at 1000 °C for 0.5 hours. It was determined that the wire surface must exceed a hardness level of 207 KHN for recrystallization to a fine grain size, while the wire core must be hardened to a level between 166 and 207 KHN for grain growth. The deformation zone geometry parameter (Δ) for wire drawing, which is conventionally employed to give a relative measure of the strain distribution in a wire workpiece as a function of die angle and reduction, was utilized in the design of the experimental drawing schedules. The magnitude of measured hardness gradients and the corresponding calculated value of Δ were found to vary similarly with die angle but differently with reduction. At constant total reduction, multiple- and single-step drawing schedules produced equivalent hardness gradients, even though the calculated values for Δ indicated that the former would give a steeper gradient. Wires with two widely differing grain size gradients, coarse and fine vs. fine and coarse at the wire surface and center, were headed. The wire with fine grains on the surface had the higher resistance to surface cracking.